Book Review: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

This month’s Books & Broads Book Club novel was Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. I must preface that I really was not excited about reading this book due to the content of the storyline – Suicide. I am a glass is half full kinda gal and I believe there is nothing so horrible in your life that would justify taking your own life, Dear Bloggites.

That being said, I do understand what would bring a person to that point in life. I have been there when I was younger and I was there when I had my car accident in 1995. I do believe everyone has a right to die on their terms if they are suffering from a terminal situation, however, it really should be a last resort type of decision and not a spur of the moment one.

The novel, Me Before You by Jojo Moyes, is about a man, Will Traynor, who was a hard-core outdoor man who found himself a quadriplegic after a freak accident. Due to the situation Will finds himself in, he decides to end his life by assisted suicide. His parents begrudgingly agree but request he wait six months. Enter in Louisa Clark. Louisa is a woman who does not know what she wants out of life and the demands of family and responsibility put her under a lot of pressure. Louisa agrees to take a six month job as a home aide helper for Will.

The storyline hits home to me on many points with the different situations each character faces due to current personal situations I am having to deal with in my life right now with my Parental Units. The author, Jojo Moyes, did a wonderful job at creating true to form characters that the reader instantly connects with them. We have all felt a struggle in our lives that at least one character is dealing with that the reader finds themselves connecting on an emotional level throughout the story.

I consider this book a tragic love story because Louisa battles death for Will’s life. During Louisa’s six month job, they fall in love, yet Will’s mind is made up and Louisa tries hard to change it by helping him learn that even though he is a quadriplegic, his life can still be lived and enjoyed.

The book is written in first person (which I do not like), but due to the content and the desired effect the author was going for, it works well in this format. There were a couple of places where the author changed the format on the writing style that may throw the reader off and on one of these places, it seems the author forgot which character’s point of view she was writing about and wound up changing to the main character’s point of view.